{"id":7006,"date":"2025-10-16T00:47:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T00:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/7006\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T00:47:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T00:47:11","slug":"walker-eget-danny-scudero-battle-injuries-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/7006\/","title":{"rendered":"Walker Eget, Danny Scudero battle injuries"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2014 San Jose State is looking to bounce back after blowing a 14-point fourth-quarter lead<\/a> at Wyoming, but the Spartans might have to do it without quarterback Walker Eget and star receiver Danny Scudero<\/a> at 100 percent \u2013 or at all.<\/p>\n

Scudero set a school record with four touchdown receptions against the Cowboys on Saturday, but the former Archbishop Mitty High star played through an injury in SJSU\u2019s 35-28 loss. Head coach Ken Niumatalolo said this week he\u2019s not sure Scudero will play Friday night against Utah State.<\/p>\n

Eget, who leads the Mountain West in passing yards and touchdowns, also was banged up in the loss. He appeared to sustain an injury to his throwing arm during the third quarter that sidelined him until San Jose State\u2019s final two drives of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Eget said to me), coach, if it gets really close, I\u2019m going to go ahead and go play,\u201d offensive coordinator Craig Stutzmann said. \u201cHe said \u2018If I can throw I can play and if I can\u2019t throw I\u2019ll just come right out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"San<\/a>San Jose State quarterback Walker Eget (5) runs as he loos to pass against Texas during the second half of an NCAA college football game in Austin, Texas, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025. (AP Photo\/Eric Gay)<\/p>\n

Niumatalolo said of Eget, \u201cHe gutted it out there in pain on the last drive (and that) just shows you who the kid is. Things look better and better every day as the week\u2019s gone on. But we\u2019re not 100% (sure Eget will play).\u201d<\/p>\n

The Spartans (2-4, 1-1 Mountain West) travel to Logan, Utah, to face the Aggies (3-3, 1-1) on Friday night (6 p.m., CBS Sports Network).<\/p>\n

SJSU has six regular-season games remaining (three on the road) to earn the six victories likely needed to secure an unprecedented fourth straight bowl appearance. Thanks to a scheduling quirk, the Spartans don\u2019t face Boise State or UNLV \u2013 two of the conference\u2019s top title contenders \u2013 this season.<\/p>\n

Eget and Scudero\u2019s status might not be determined until kickoff in Logan, though the Spartans have to submit their roster availability report Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

SJSU has a short week of preparation after being outscored 21-0 in the fourth quarter in Laramie.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been doing this for 36 years and that\u2019s probably one of the toughest losses I\u2019ve been involved in,\u201d Niumatalolo said. \u201cJust with the way everything transpired because we had total control of the game. I\u2019m used to finding ways to close games out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"San<\/a>San Jose State wide receiver Danny Scudero scores one of his four first-half touchdowns against Wyoming on Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025. (Photo courtesy of San Jose State Athletics)<\/p>\n

Three of the Spartans\u2019 losses and both of their wins have been decided by a touchdown or less.<\/p>\n

When Eget went down against Wyoming, senior Xavier Ward and freshman Tama Amisone split reps at quarterback until Eget returned. They were a combined 8-of-18 for 45 yards and one interception. The Spartans did not score without Eget under center.<\/p>\n

Amisone and Ward had taken the majority of the practice reps as of Tuesday, according to Niumatalolo. He said if Eget can\u2019t go, whoever plays better in practice will be the starter against Utah State.<\/p>\n

Niumatalolo also has a decision to make at kicker. Mathias Brown, who took over for Denis Lynch the past two weeks, missed his first two career field-goal attempts against Wyoming (from 53 yards and 47 yards). Lynch was demoted after making just four of his 10 attempts, missing a potential game-winning 33-yard field goal in the Spartans\u2019 16-14 loss to Central Michigan and two kicks from less than 30 yards in SJSU\u2019s 30-29 loss to Stanford.<\/p>\n

The position was up for grabs again this week at practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was kind of hoping we wouldn\u2019t have that discussion and get past it but it\u2019s the elephant in the room,\u201d Niumatalolo said. \u201cWe have to get better at field goal kicking. It\u2019s cost us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Spartans\u2019 defense will also have its hands full with Aggies quarterback Bryson Barnes.<\/p>\n

Barnes has thrown for 1,318 yards, 12 touchdowns (second to Eget in the Mountain West) and only two interceptions. Barnes has also rushed for 309 yards and six touchdowns.<\/p>\n

\u201cVanderbilt struggled to stop this guy. He\u2019s a really good player,\u201d Niumatalolo said. \u201cThe most impressive thing to me about the kid is his toughness, he\u2019s about as tough as I\u2019ve seen. I\u2019m looking forward to meeting him after the game and shaking his hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before coming to Utah State, Barnes played at Utah, where he led the Utes to a victory over USC and now Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a really competitive player and (Utah State) rallies around his competitiveness,\u201d defensive coordinator Derrick Odum said. \u201cHe runs the ball hard, has a strong arm and he\u2019s a great leader. He\u2019s going to be a huge challenge this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

There will be a lot of familiar faces in Friday\u2019s game as San Jose State seeks its first road win. Three SJSU coaches played at Utah State and four current Spartans coaches previously worked at USU.<\/p>\n

Utah State\u2019s offensive coordinator is Kevin McGiven, who served as San Jose State\u2019s offensive coordinator from 2018-23. McGiven spent one season on Niumatalolo\u2019s staff as the wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator.<\/p>\n

The Aggies\u2019 offense features former Spartan Anthony Garcia, who redshirted in 2023 and was recruited by former Spartans head coach Brent Brennan. Garcia, who started out as a quarterback, has found himself being featured in a gadget role in Utah State\u2019s offense.<\/p>\n

On top of that, Niumatalolo\u2019s son, Ali\u2019i Niumatalolo, is the tight ends coach and a senior analyst for the Utah State football team.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time Niumatalolo faced off against one of his sons: In 2018 during his time at the Naval Academy, Niumatalolo\u2019s oldest son Va\u2019a was an offensive intern on Hawaii\u2019s staff when Navy fell to Hawaii 59-41 in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019m 0-1 against my sons. I definitely don\u2019t want to go 0-2 against my sons,\u201d Niumatalolo said. \u201cNormally we talk, but we haven\u2019t been talking much this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally Published: October 15, 2025 at 12:29 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2014 San Jose State is looking to bounce back after blowing a 14-point fourth-quarter lead at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[7,1327,88,90,89,127],"class_list":{"0":"post-7006","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-college-sports","10":"tag-san-jose","11":"tag-san-jose-headlines","12":"tag-san-jose-news","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}